Murray Now

For those of you that have not heard about the Halve Waste campaign and the amazing work being done throughout the Murray Region, here is a brief introduction.

“Halve Waste – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a cross-border two year campaign endorsed by Albury City, Corowa Shire, Greater Hume Shire, Towong Shire, Indigo Shire and City of Wodonga; including along with 15 councils represented by RAMROC (the Riverina and Murray Regional Organisation of Councils) in New South Wales.

The campaign aims to educate the community about the need to reduce waste. One of the major achievements of the campaign includes over 350 businesses pledging to reduce waste in their workplace. Programs running through the Halve Waste intiative include:

The ‘A-Z Waste Guide’ education kit, which assisting residents and businesses alike on the distribution of a broad range of recycling and waste Subsidised home composting equipment and education courses, and The launch of a school education program, entitled ‘Wide World of Waste’

Halve Waste’s plan is to heavily target the Commercial and Industrial sector, providing them with the tools to further improve their waste management practices. The aims of the new campaign will be to get a total of 600 businesses signed onto the Halve Waste pledge and provide another 200 businesses with a free waste audit.

Did you know that Australians are one of the highest producers of waste in the world per capita, with every Australian household producing on average over one tonne of waste each year?

To put this into a local perspective whilst New South Wales has shown an increase in recycling, over 13 million tonnes of waste is still produced each year, with 200,000 tonnes of this going into the Albury landfill alone.

“If we continue producing waste at the rate we are today, it is estimated that up to 70 million tonnes of waste will be generated nationally each year by 2020.” says Mike Ritchie, Director of Mike Ritchie and Associates and Project Manager for the Albury regions Halve Waste – Reduce Reuse Recycle campaign.

Andrea Baldwin, Waste Management Officer with Albury City said “The Albury landfill is reaching capacity. The Council is taking steps to improve the landfill so as to increase resource recovery, but it is still largely up to the community to take responsibility for their purchasing habits and sorting of their own waste.”

“This practice must be adopted throughout all the towns involved in this campaign to make it a success.”

The Halve Waste campaign is testament to local government, businesses and individuals working together throughout the Murray to achieve a common solution. Murray Now commends any initiative that supports business and the community towards a cleaner and more productive environment.

By participating in the Halve Waste campaign and significantly reducing waste, you can save money whilst recycling materials can give new life to our waste

For more information please visit the Halve Waste website www.halvewaste.com.au